Riding Mountain House was a

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

trading post set up to the south of what is now the

Riding Mountain National Park Riding Mountain National Park is a national park in Manitoba, Canada. The park is located within Treaty 2 Territory and sits atop the Manitoba Escarpment. Consisting of a protected area of , the forested parkland stands in sharp contrast to the ...

, on the

Little Saskatchewan River The Little Saskatchewan River is a river in western Manitoba. It originates in Riding Mountain National Park at Lake Audy and flows about south through the communities of Minnedosa and Rapid City. Its approximate length is 185 km. It jo ...

. It was built in 1860 and maintained until 1895, by which time there was little remaining trade in furs. It was near modern-day Elphinstone, Manitoba. The Hudson's Bay Company established the post for the purpose of trading with the

Ojibwe people The Ojibwe (; syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains, extending into the subarctic and thr ...

led by Chief Okanase and then by Chief

Keeseekoowenin Keeseekoowenin (c. 1818 – 10 April 1906) was a First Nations leader during the period when Canada was expanding into the prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Origins Keeseekoowenin (''Giizhigowinin'', "Sky-man") was born ar ...

. The Keeseekooweenin First Nation owns the reserve where Riding Mountain House once stood. In 1875, the band was offered the choice of staying at Riding Mountain House or moving to

Dauphin Lake Dauphin Lake is located in western Manitoba near the city of Dauphin. The lake covers an area of and has a drainage basin of about . The Mossy River drains the lake into Lake Winnipegosis. The basin is drained by seven major streams and has a ...

, with fourteen heads of families voting to stay and nine to move to Dauphin Lake. The advantage of Dauphin Lake was that it had better hunting and fishing, and was more isolated from European settlement. However, those who wanted to stay had built houses, cleared and fenced land and were raising good crops of potatoes, wheat, barley and garden vegetables. A Presbyterian Mission under the Rev.

George Flett George Flett (10 February 1817 – 28 October 1897) was a Presbyterian missionary in what is now Manitoba, Canada. Flett was of Orkney and Cree descent. As a young man he farmed on the White Horse Plains, led a gold exploration party to Edmo ...

was set up nearby. The trading post lies on or very near to land currently owned by the

Nature Conservancy of Canada The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is a private, non-profit, charitable nature conservation and restoration organisation based in Canada. Since its founding in 1962, the organisation and its partners have protected of land and water acro ...

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Westman Region, Manitoba Hudson's Bay Company trading posts in Manitoba 1860 establishments in Canada 1895 disestablishments in Manitoba History of Manitoba Riding Mountain National Park